Memory - Explanations for forgetting>Interference & Retrieval failure Flashcards
When does interference occur?
When the recall of one memory blocks the recall of another, causing forgetting or distorted perceptions of these memories.
What are the two types of interference?
Retroactive - when new memories block the recollection of old memories
Proactive - when old memories block the recollection of new memories
Who demonstrated retroactive interference? How did they do this?
McGeoch and McDonald (1931). All participants learned a 10 word long adjective list perfectly. They were then split into 6 groups and given different activities. The group who were on “rest” had the best recall of the original word list. The other groups were experiencing retroactive interference, because they were forgetting old information to remember new information. The more similar the new material was to the old material the more impact interference has on forgetting.
What are the weaknesses of interference as an explanation of forgetting?
LACKS ECOLOGICAL VALIDITY
The artificial stimuli used in these tasks, such as learning lists of random words with no personal meaning to the participants, means that the findings of interference studies are likely to have low mundane realism. Irl we are likely to learn lists of meaningful information, which we draw links upon and also which have personal meaning to us. These factors may also influence the extent of forgetting, rather than interference.
LACKS RELIABILITY
Interference studies are often conducted in very short periods of time (recall after 1 or 2 hours) This does not reflect the normal passage of time in everyday life, where we often find that several days pass until we need to recall such information e.g in an exam. Interference is unlikely to be a valid explanation for forgetting from the LTM
What are the strengths of interference as an explanation for forgetting?
HAS BEEN CONSISTENTLY DEMONSTRATED IN SEVERAL STUDIES
but particularly in lab experiments. This increases the validity of the theory, due the use of highly-controlled conditions in lab experiments - removal of the biasing effects of extraneous and confounding variables
BADDELEY AND HITCH
found that in a group of rugby players who had to recall the last game and the number of games they’d played that season. The number of games they’d played since was more important than the total time they’d be playing for. This can be explained in terms of interference , where the more games each player had played, the more likely the memories of these new games would interfere or block the recall of older games,
What does retrieval failure suggest about when forgetting occurs?
Suggests that forgetting occurs when the ‘cues’ (triggers of information recollection) present at the time of encoding the information are not present at the time of recall. This describes Tulving’s ‘encoding specificity principle’ (ESP)
What are the two types of forgetting?
Context-dependent and State-dependent
When does Context-dependent forgetting occur?
When our external cues at the time of encoding do not match those present at recall. This was demonstrated by Godden and Baddeley (1975) who found that with deep-water divers, recall at the ‘matching’ conditions (e.g word lists learnt underwater and recalled underwater) was significantly larger than the non-matching conditions.
When does State-dependent forgetting occur?
When our internal cues at the time of encoding do not match those present at recall. This was demonstrated by Carter and Cassaday (1998) , using a similar methodology as Godden and Baddeley but with anti-histamines instead to change the internal to change the internal cues at the time of encoding and recall. The researchers found 40% higher rates of accurate recall in the matching conditions, compared to the non-matching conditions
